WASHINGTON – Senate Democrats yesterday ripped Attorney General-designate John Ashcroft as a conservative zealot resistant to school desegregation, gun control and a woman’s right to chose on abortion.

Ashcroft, defending himself on Day 1 of a fiery confirmation hearing, offered himself as a fair, religious man and insisted he would “serve as the attorney general of all the people.”

“If I am confirmed as attorney general . . . injustice against individuals will not stand. No ifs, ands or buts,” said Ashcroft, a former GOP senator who, despite the rhetoric, is expected to win confirmation.

The verbal jousting, including an outburst from four New Yorkers who favor needle-exchange programs, offered a hint at the fevered interest in President-elect Bush’s nominee to run the Justice Department.

Democrats, including Sen. Edward Kennedy of Massachusetts and Charles Schumer of New York, wasted no time hitting Ashcroft as out of tune with mainstream America on key issues.

Schumer said Ashcroft is “zealous and impassioned” and may not be able to “turn off” his dedication to conservative issues when it comes time to enforcing federal law.

Yet Russ Feingold, an influential Democrat from Wisconsin, said his inclination was to let Bush “appoint people of strong conservative ideology,” just as a Democratic president would tap liberals.

Ashcroft appears to have more than the 51 votes he needs to be confirmed; aides say his goal is simply to persuade more centrist Democrats to cast their lot with him.

Republicans on the Senate Judiciary Committee, which must vote on Ashcroft before the full Senate can, criticized Democrats for stacking the witness list against the nominee.

Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-Utah) told The Post he “is disappointed that the Democrats, who control the committee until Saturday, have called witnesses that are anti-Ashcroft.”

Ashcroft doesn’t drink, smoke, dance or swear and when he sings, which is often, he does not permit himself to sway in time to the music, preferring instead to turn from side to side.

The son of a Pentecostal minister, Ashcroft is known around Washington for anointing himself with oil when he was sworn in as a senator in 1995.

His four-day hearing resumes today with cross-examination and continues tomorrow with witnesses including black Missouri judge Ronnie White, who was denied a federal judgeship because of Ashcroft’s opposition. A committee vote is expected as early as next week.